174 • 11 WESTERNIZING REFORM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURYits ships, and munitions plants to turn out guns and bayonets. French ad¬
visers helped the Egyptian government build and equip them. Hundreds
of Turkish- and Arabic-speaking Egyptians were sent to Europe for tech¬
nical and military training. Western instructors were imported to found
schools in Egypt for medicine, engineering, and military training. Finally,
a new Arabic press was set up to print translated textbooks and a govern¬
ment journal.
Mehmet AH's Military Empire
Mehmet Ali was also the first ruler since the Ptolemies to use Egyptian
farmers as soldiers. They hated military service. Few of the conscripts ever
saw their homes again. Despite their ingenious attempts at draft-dodging,
they got dragged into the army anyway. Turkish, Circassian, and European
officers whipped this new Egyptian army into a potent fighting force. It
served Mehmet Ali (at the Ottoman sultan's request) against the Wahhabis,
who had occupied Mecca and Medina. He also put together an Egyptian
navy, with which he helped the Ottomans against the Greeks, who were
fighting for their independence. After the Great Powers stepped in to help
the Greeks defeat the Turks, however, Mehmet Ali turned against the sultan
himself. He sent his son, Ibrahim, in charge of an expeditionary force that
marched into Palestine and Syria. By the end of 1832 he ruled most of the
Fertile Crescent and the Hijaz. Ibrahim tried to impose his father's western¬
izing reforms in Syria, but the Syrians proved less docile than the Egyp¬
tians. Revolts broke out in the mountains as Syrian peasants resisted
agricultural controls and the confiscation of their firearms. Taking advan¬
tage of Ibrahim's troubles, the Ottoman government tried to win back
some of his land. Mehmet Ali and Ibrahim struck back, penetrating Ana¬
tolia. By 1839 it looked as if Cairo would take over the whole Ottoman
Empire as the imperial fleet deserted en masse to Alexandria and a sixteen-
year-old prince was girded with the sword of Osman. Only intervention by
the Great Powers (mainly Britain) made Mehmet Ali withdraw from Syria
and accept autonomy in Egypt.
Mehmet Ali cared little for the Egyptians. After his diplomatic defeat he
lost interest in his economic and military reforms. Most of the schools and
nearly all the state-run factories were closed. The state monopolies
and other controls on agriculture lapsed. Most of the lands were parceled
out to his friends and relatives. Nevertheless, upon his death Mehmet Ali
could bequeath to his children and grandchildren a nearly independent
Egypt with memories of military might. Also, his empire had been built
on agricultural and industrial development, using no money borrowed